Why Microsoft's Anti-Google Marketing Campaign Blew Up In Its Face

Dave Thier
, ContributorI write about video games and technology.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

This was obviously a bad idea. Microsoft decided to run a relentlessly negative twitter campaign called #droidrage, where people

Pig (Photo credit: peter pearson)

were supposed to complain about malware problems with their devices that run Google's Android OS. It may be a strange offshoot of #muslimrage from earlier this year. Whatever Microsoft thought was going to happen, it almost immediately backfired. A few retweets from the official Windows phone Twitter:

“Bank details stolen once after android malware attacked my phone after downloading an app from Google play -.- #DroidRage”

“took hundreds of pics on fam. vacation. Downloaded an app to store them, wiped all of them out :( #droidrage”

Nobody wins when you pour hatred into the internet. Soon after #droidrage started up, the Twitter and Android communities responded with #windowsrage about how much they hated windows phones. Highlights:

“Bought a Windows Phone and there are a total of 6 apps #windowsrage.”

“I once thought about writing malware for a @windowsphone but then I thought, aren't they suffering enough? #DroidRage #WindowsRage”

If you can't advertise based on the strengths of your own product, there's something amiss. I can only imagine that recently promoted Microsoft marketer made some speech about “disruption” to a room full of confused execs desperately trying to figure out why their brand was associated with boring stagnation. “It’s a new kind of marketing,” he probably told them. He may have used the word “edgy.” Maybe even “in your face.”

This campaign was doomed from the start. When you’re marketing with social media, there’s no possible way to actually control what gets said about your product. So the best you can do is use a real narrative that will spread on its own, or establish a tone for your conversation that makes attacks on your company look petulant. When you start out looking petulant, like Windows did here, it’s only going to get worse. When you fight with a pig, you both get dirty. But the pig likes it.